DETERMINANTS OF LOCAL COMMUNITY’S WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR FOREST CONSERVATION IN EVERGREEN AFROM.....

Humans rely heavily on ecological services provided by nature. In southwest Ethiopia, we investigated local communities' willingness to pay for improved forest protection and the factors. To do so, 30 sample families from each peasant association were randomly selected for a questionnaire survey, one from the edge of the forests and three others at 5km intervals. The first sample household was chosen by tossing the stick into the air and following the stick head's trajectory. We used a logistic regression model analysis with probit function in the aod package to test the effects of socioeconomic variables on households' willingness to pay for forest conservation, and one-way ANOVA in the R statistical programme to examine the effect of household locations from forest edges on the amount of willingness bids per month. The results showed that 104 (86.7%) of the households accepted the first proposal that was presented arbitrarily. The monthly average willingness to pay is 1.1 USD (range: 0.36–4.46). The local community's willingness to pay for conservation was determined by educational level, income status, whether or not the households had been informed on the importance of forest conservation, land ownership status, and the distance of the homes from forest boundaries (P0.01). Household bids for forest protection increased as monthly income grew, and were greater at the intermediate location from forest margins. Aside from characteristics like education, income, and land ownership, farmers can be trained to increase their communities' commitment to forest biodiversity conservation. Overall, our findings show that boosting household willingness to pay for improving the conservation of the sheka forest in southwest Ethiopia could be aided by raising awareness and expanding economic possibilities for local residents.

Please see the link :- https://www.ikprress.org/index.php/JOGEE/article/view/7420